Magazine menu Close Magazine menu

Bring on the Future

Meet businesses around the world who are using technology in impactful and ingenious ways to bring on the future.

Selected articles

spacegraph interview

Shimmer, SPARKLE and digital toilets: The art and cybersecurity world of Lin Hsin Hsin

  • Blockchain
  • min read
    • As part of Kaspersky's Bring on the Future series, we meet people and businesses around the world who are changing the industry, and society, for the better. Lin Hsin Hsin is the Founder and CTO of SpaceGraph. She's an inventive technologist, artist, poet and composer from Singapore whose practice is deeply rooted in mathematics and information technology. In 1994, she established the Lin Hsin Hsin Art Museum – the first virtual museum in the world. I met Lin at a recent cybersecurity conference, and we discussed the connections between cyber-tech and art in her work. Oleg: How did you become interested in cybersecurity? Lin Hsin Hsin: Cybersecurity is a discipline I'm hugely interested in. I specialize in threat intelligence. I'm particularly interested in new encryption methods and emerging technologies like blockchain and biometrics. I like exploring smart contracts too – these are an integral part of cryptocurrencies but they're not so 'smart' – they use weak programming language with flawed language design. I think of cybersecurity as a 'cat and mouse' game between the cybercriminals and the security experts. Can we beat them? Well said! Even more so at the enterprise level, incidents show that people are often the weakest link. All you need is a moment of lapsed attention and all your cautious preparation is rendered invalid. On the other hand, enterprises are constantly battling with insider threats too. Is it possible to have a quantum leap in cybersecurity? Well, yes, the deployment of data science and advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) can propel us toward better solutions, but hackers are also using the same tools and processes to get ahead of the curve. Recently you created a series of artworks around Brexit. Will you create more art based on political themes? My Brexit Art Series consists of 50 digital artworks – it's now complete. Why 50? Because of Article 50! I even created a markup language <BREXML> based on the term 'Brexit.' You invented the first 100 percent Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) protocol, known as SpaceGraph, and you excel in using blockchain algorithms. What are your thoughts about using blockchain? I was the first person in the world to author the phenomenon of cryptocurrency, back in 1996. To date, there are only two protocols in existence, Bitcoin and Ethereum. The rest are either platforms or apps. The 10-year-old Bitcoin protocol is all about mining, where transactions are verified by peer-to-peer networking through cryptography and recorded in a public-distributed ledger called blockchain. Ethereum is a modified Bitcoin consensus via transaction-based state transitions. In June 2016, Ethereum and ĐAO (the related decentralized autonomous organization) was exploited due to several security vulnerabilities associated with ĐAO's smart contract software. It performed credible trackable, but irreversible, transactions without third parties to reduce transaction costs. Every transaction executed on Ethereum requires gas, defined as a fraction of an Ethereum token. There was a time when people thought blockchain was immutable. Now people have realized a few 51% attacks (blockchain attacks) do exist. Will these attacks persist? Yes, definitely. In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold – then the 26th-largest cryptocurrency – suffered a 51% attack. The malicious actor, who controlled a vast amount of Bitcoin Gold's hashpower, was able to double spend for several days, eventually stealing 18 million US dollars worth of Bitcoin Gold. More interestingly, it's the 34% attack, via the tangle – a distributed ledger fundamentally distinct from a blockchain, but designed to achieve similar goals – that could be more of a risk. It's called a '34% attack' because it would take just 34 percent of network hashing power to carry out the attack. You're a pioneer in both the IT industry and digital art. How do you imagine the future of digital art? We used to read physical copies of newspapers and books. How many people still have this habit? Book stores have converted to cafés for people to socialize, though most people are ordering a drink with their eyeballs glued to their mobile screen rather than interacting with another person! Will the advance of neuro-interfaces create artificial effects on our senses? Yes, these already exist. Recently, I invented some shimmering art for your pleasure! SPARKLE (Shimmering Pixels Assimilated Resistive Touchscreen Kindle iLuminated Emissions) is my latest invention. Will physical art survive? Archiving art is a nightmare because its materials always degenerate. It needs a great deal of space and preservation. Let me take you further on the journey. With the current capabilities of neuro-networks Generative Adversarial Network (GAN and deepGAN), the days of Hollywood's rule are numbered! Do we even need actors, cameras or production crew? I'm also a composer. I've recreated Western orchestral instruments from alternative sounds. For example, using the sound of water rippling, gushing and dripping, you can create the foundation of a sonic tone for a digital musical instrument. There's no difference in building a cat's meow or a dog's bark from this digital instrument. Don't you think something would be lost in the process? No! This is a replacement – there's no loss. New art and art forms can be created by harnessing the inherent properties of digital, like the internet and smartphone. I'm a huge admirer of the Bolshoi Ballet. The AI-assisted and sensor-based pointed shoes can be used to track a dancer's movements, training the dancer's skills to perfection. By measuring the dancer's exact body, it's also faster and better. Of course, robots could replace ballerinas very soon. How have you used virtual reality (VR) in your art? I started creating 3D art back in 1982. My first awareness of VR was in 1997, when I met the father of VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), Mark Pesces, in Los Angeles, USA. I started making VR art two years later, the same year I exhibited my first 3D printing work. I was the first person in the world to successfully use equations to create 3D design for sculptures, objects and jewelry. Fast-forward to 2011, I invented the first cardboard VR glass, three years before Google Cardboard! There's a lot of talk about digitization and tokenization in art, but people sometimes say viewing digitized art in cyberspace feels 'fake' and 'bland.' What's your view? Art was digitized about two decades ago! About the tokenization of art, I can't see the benefits because you must first filter out all the fakes, and that in itself is a mammoth task! I've delivered lectures on fake art, both fake non-digital art as well as fake digital art. Recently I created a method to make a digital canvas. It redefines the medium. If you use a physical bristle to draw an elephant on textured cloth or canvas, there will be two different impressions, so you will see two different elephants. I programmed a digital canvas to create this textured effect, to evoke a feeling. It's designed to make you feel better, compared to seeing the image with the factory default settings. It's like going to a concert hall to hear a concert and discussing the acoustics over a glass of wine in the intermission, compared to staying home and listening to the concert on your headphones. You're the first person I'm sharing this concept with! I'm delighted to hear about it! How do you see the future of utility tokens and cryptocurrency? Will the world adopt cryptocurrency as its preferred payment method? In all countries, the function of a central bank is to exercise control of the country's monetary system and policy. Central banks issue and regulate, limiting the circulation of the national currency. Other than security tokens and stable coins, cryptocurrency is decentralized and unregulated by financial policymakers, hence their objections to it. But several countries, like Luxembourg, Malta and Marshall Islands, have endorsed and adopted cryptocurrencies as their sovereign and legal tender. As cryptography is anonymous, it eases peer-to-peer transactions and facilitates instant currency exchanges. It's the rise of the truly 'cashless society.' It may even help to find solutions to debt. That would be a game-changer. What's your perspective on quantum computing? Unlike the existing computing world, quantum computing is based on qubits – sub-atomic bits such as electrons or photons. In cryptocurrency, quantum computers can break the elliptic curve cryptography efficiently in the two existing protocols, Bitcoin and Ethereum. Though not tested, it shouldn't affect the third protocol, SpaceGraph™ that I architected in 2018. A quantum computer can calculate the private key from a signature, although it may not be as useful, as there's no longer any credit on the address. In any case, it can also exercise powerful attacks on the RSA asymmetric key systems. Art vs technology: How do you share these disciplines in your life? There is no 'art.' I define ART as: Art Requires Technology Technology Redefines Art What are your hopes for the future? I'd like a future devoid of scams and fakes. About a year ago, I was attending a tech event. When I was waiting for our (human-made) coffee, I met a man who asked me what I did for work. I replied, "I'm an artist." He was shocked. "Why are you at a tech event? What else do you do?" I replied, "Cybersecurity." He became more puzzled and asked, "What's the connection?" I said, "The logic is very simple: cybersecurity prevents the theft of my digital IP." Eradicating plagiarism, fakes and lies is important to my future as a digital artist, and for the world of technology.
deepwell gaming therapy

Are games the future of mental health treatment?

  • Start-ups
  • min read
    • In Kaspersky's Bring on the Future series, we meet people and businesses worldwide who are changing things for the better. One of the biggest challenges for mental health treatment is reaching more people who need it. Some don't realize they're mentally unwell. Others can't access therapy because of costs or waiting lists. Many don't like the idea of discussing their problems with a stranger. DeepWell DTx aims to change that by bringing mental health therapy to the masses – especially hard-to-reach patients – through gaming. Co-founders Ryan Douglas and Mike Wilson speak about why games are a great way to treat mental health issues – if you get the formula right. Why did you decide to start DeepWell now? We found that mental health came up constantly in our respective careers – Mike in gaming and Ryan in creating medical devices and therapies. We saw many people were missing the resources or help to treat disorders like anxiety and depression. We often talked about what we could do to address this unmet need, then the deepening mental health crisis alongside the Covid-19 pandemic pushed us to start DeepWell. What's DeepWell's philosophy? We put games and game developers first. There is no treatment without player engagement, so therapy must be embedded in a fun and engaging game. How has your team of 40 experts across gaming, science and mental health helped your success? Our diverse team is made up of professionals at the top of their fields. Neurosurgeons, lawyers, creative strategists and others all work in service of the game developer. Without the game's fun, there is no therapy. What can players expect might change after playing your games? Our games aim to help players improve their physical and emotional functioning. After playing consistently, you should notice greater resilience and capability to handle the stress and anxiety of daily life. How has gaming supported your mental health? Which games do you recommend for therapy? At the moment we're focused on virtual reality (VR,) using games like Pistol Whip and motivational fitness apps like Supernatural for leisure and exercise. These games have especially helped during the pandemic for getting off the couch and quelling anxiety with movement. We've also found immersive fantasy games like Lorne Lanning's Oddworld and American McGee's Alice, role-playing games (RPGs) like Wizard101 and world-builders like Minecraft therapeutic for us and our families. Any game that takes you out of your head has potential benefits. Who are your customers? Are businesses investing in these games, such as the healthcare industry, or any business hoping to improve employee wellbeing? We're reaching out directly to folks with mental health issues. We also partner with game developers, publishers and platforms to create new games or repurpose games that are already therapeutic. We hope our games will make mental health treatment accessible to a broader audience. Serious games have evolved as a genre in recent decades, especially in academia and healthcare. Do you align with it? We are not serious games. We rely on the power of play and engagement that good games provide. While we see the value of other approaches, this is what makes us different. How will your FDA games certification project benefit the industry and gamers? Being able to make claims and develop games with therapeutic intent, and to have players understand the therapeutic benefit of engaging, will change game development and the audience games can reach. Can you tell us about games you plan to launch? The first game we're working on focuses on addressing stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression on a VR platform. More to come closer to launch. How will you keep your products secure and safe for users? We closely follow the FDA and HIPAA guidelines and requirements for data management in prescription games. What will success look like for DeepWell? Widespread recognition of the power of game developers to develop Immersive Medicine and being able to produce many therapeutic options for a range of cultures and mental health conditions.
Team Brit disability racing

Top gear: This winning team’s tech makes racing accessible

  • Bring on the Future
  • min read
    • Motor racing is demanding and competitive. But what if you had to drive without your feet or with one hand? Team BRIT is smashing perceptions of what a disabled racing team can achieve. I met team Principle Dave Player and driver Chris Overend to learn more about Team BRIT and find out what business can learn from their methods, attitude and success. What's the story behind Team BRIT? Dave: I'm former army – I spent five years in the Royal Engineers. I've been involved in disability sports for 25 years. I use a wheelchair now. I wanted to do something for injured soldiers coming back from Afghanistan. In 2010 we launched our charity Kartforce. I wanted to design a simple solution with rented cars that was quick and easy to install and remove, low cost and reliable for the rough and tumble of racing. The result was a simple set of hand controls easily fitted into karts to offer rehabilitation and recovery sessions for injured troops. In 2015 the racers wanted to set up a car team. But we had the same challenge with hand controls. Disabled drivers have push-pull hand controls bolted to the steering column. One hand pushes the brake and pulls for throttle, the other hand steers. For racing, you'd need a third hand to change gear. I gave the challenge to our engineering director Al Locke: We needed to go through a chicane (serpentine curve in a road) at the same speed as a non-disabled driver. We achieved that, and kept evolving. Chris: We race against non-disabled drivers in endurance racing championships. We're every bit as fast and competitive. Endurance racing is arduous, but you don't develop as much body heat when not using your legs, which could be an advantage. What are the cars like to drive? Chris: I drive an adapted BMW M240i. In the boot there's a heavy duty case, hydraulic cylinder and compressor that runs the throttle and brake pneumatics. I use my thumbs to control a rocker-switch. We have a huge range of disabilities in Team BRIT. We can change the distance to the steering wheel as we have different size hands, but everything else about the car is the same. I shift gears with my thumbs: Left thumb up, right thumb down. It's opposite to the usual race car but helps avoid overloading your brain. I practice with simulation to learn to drive subconsciously. Dave: We needed to find reliable and robust existing technology. We tried experimental throttles that would overheat. Military tech can take more abuse than road cars, so we developed a hand control system now recognized as best in the world. How are you developing the tech? Dave: We're constantly improving the tech. We're working on a project for a quadruple amputee with knee and elbow amputations. We test scenarios by setting up a simulator to see how it works for her. Instead of the paddle on the steering wheel, controls could be on the race seat, so she'd squeeze her right leg for throttle and left leg to brake. Our hand controls also help disabled people to get into simulated motorsport, or iRacing. eTeam BRIT competes in online racing competitions. We provide opportunities for drivers worldwide to race competitively from their homes. What achievements are you most proud of? Chris: My greatest moment was the last race at Silverstone. We finished first in class. It was the first time we got on the podium. Dave: Our growth. We're achieving beyond what we thought possible. We're smashing perceptions. What's next for Team BRIT? Dave: We want to show there's no limit, as long as drivers have the skills. We want to be the first all-disabled team to compete in the 24-hour endurance race Le Mans 2024. We could use a non-competitive wildcard entry to showcase new technology, but we want to earn our place on the grid to compete. Chris: In sprint racing, you dive for each corner, but endurance racing is all about consistency, positions and discipline. You must manage your fuel and resources to get the car to the end. It's a psychological and physical workout. I want to win the championship this year, then move up a category to British Endurance Championship or British Grand Prix. How can motorsport become more inclusive? Dave: The motorsport community has been supportive. Other drivers say seeing disabled drivers winning is inspiring. There are many disabled racing drivers in the UK, but government bodies are behind the times. Motorsport UK should be leading the way, but they aren't. What advice can you give someone who wants to get into racing? Dave: Start with the driver. Motorsport isn't suitable for all disabilities. To get a race license, you must be able to escape from a car in 10 seconds. You need to be mobile and have strength and agility. Ninety percent of the work is off track. For a disabled driver, there are no shortcuts or grants. You must find sponsors, like every other driver. You need to invest time in the business and raise your profile. Use social media to elevate yourself. Chris: There are great opportunities for disabled sportspeople today. Team BRIT is a dream come true. Dave: Team BRIT is here to help. We haven't patented our hand controls and share what we've learned with similar organizations overseas. We can help with information on getting a license or medical certificate, and ways to race. You can start affordably by paying a team to rent a car and there are low-budget cars. You could find a group of like-minded rookies and do team racing together each year. We want everyone to enjoy racing.

Recycled plastic rocket fuel has lift-off in waste-free space

  • Bring on the Future
  • min read
    • The space rocket was once thought an achievement of human ingenuity so grand that the pollutants it generated were hardly considered. But now we're seeing several launches a month, their carbon dioxide (CO2) output is adding up. Scottish space company Skyrora thinks it's found an answer: A high-grade fuel manufactured from petrochemicals sourced from previously unrecyclable plastics. They believe Ecosene, a fuel similar to kerosene, could disrupt the fossil fuel economy. Recycling plastics isn't the solution many of us imagine as we dutifully rinse our milk and shampoo bottles. A paper published in Science Advances estimates we're recycling less than nine percent of plastic at the end of its life, and encouraging more recycling can't address the reasons for the low rate of plastic recycling. In 2015, a paper in the journal Science estimated that up to eight million tons of plastic enter the oceans each year. The Ocean Conservancy calculates seas will contain 250 million tons of plastic by 2030. A proven eco-fuel I spoke to Derek Harris, Business Operations Manager at Skyrora. "We need a way to extend the life cycle of plastics – one that doesn't include burying or burning them," Harris explains. "We developed the first batch of Ecosene at a small test facility in Slovakia, turning about a ton of unrecyclable plastic into about 600kg of high-performance fuel for rockets or commercial jet aircraft." That's enough for an efficient jet to fly over 24,000 passenger kilometers – further than London Heathrow to Auckland, New Zealand. To further reduce aviation's footprint, Skyrora hopes to make a transportable system called a 'skid' that allows processing materials to make Ecosene at airports. Making the eco fuel at its site of use would cut another environmental cost of aviation: Transporting fuel from where it's made to where it's needed. Manufacturing innovation meets recycling breakthrough "We use plastics like polystyrene, polyester and polypropylene that are usually unrecyclable when clean," Harris clarifies. "Ecosene's production process means we can even use unclean waste plastics." Mixed plastics, some harder to recycle than others, and unclean plastics, are barriers to effective plastic disposal and recycling, which has motivated some countries to burn plastic waste, releasing pollutants into the air. Being able to use unclean plastics stands this eco-fuel apart as a recycling option. The fuel's developers have produced plans for marine vehicles that would collect plastic waste from oceans and perform the first step in the Ecosene manufacturing process onboard. The vessels would then transport the waste to nearby facilities for the next steps to convert the plastics to eco-fuel. Manufacturing petrochemical fuel can produce damaging waste, which Ecosene also addresses. "Processes similar to Ecosene production release harmful gases, but we use these for heating, recycling some of the waste within the manufacturing process." Ecosene also contains less sulfur than the form of kerosene rockets use (RP-1 kerosene.) As an atmospheric pollutant, sulfur causes respiratory disease, acid rain and tree and crop damage. Others have tried to recycle petrochemical plastics into usable fuels before, often failing because it's hard to extract excess the paraffin waxes manufacture generates. Skyrora's breakthrough was a low-temperature catalytic pyrolysis process that separates the paraffin waxes, leaving an effective eco-fuel. Too good to be true? Ecosene boasts more commercial competitiveness and environmental effectiveness than fuels from other energy companies. Having followed Ecosene's journey from inception to testing to launch, I had to ask Harris if it was all too good to be true. He told me, "Before I agreed to take over the Ecosene project from Skyrora, I wanted to see the process working and tested. 21 tests later, including an upper-stage rocket engine for low-earth orbital missions and support, we found Ecosene was one to three percent better than kerosene in energy characteristics. Their claims stood up to scrutiny, and there were signs we could further improve the formula." Harris continued, "That said, I wouldn't claim it's the ultimate solution to the plastic waste crisis. We must address the climate crisis at source, but in the meantime, we've found a strategy to address one of its many symptoms." With hydrogen and biofuels on the rise, Ecosene will see its share of competitors. While reliable and designed to address plastics mitigation at its core, Ecosene is still a CO2-producing fuel that can't contribute to carbon neutrality targets. But hydrogen fuels and engines struggle to produce the power needed for flight: Airbus says their commercial hydrogen jets would be ready to fly around 2035. In the meantime, in rockets and jets, Ecosene makes a compelling replacement for traditional kerosene.
Smart agriculture and food

This new tech could help produce enough food for a population of 10 billion

  • Bring on the Future
  • min read
    • The UN estimates nearly 10 billion people will inhabit our planet by 2050 – two billion more than today. How will we feed them? With the current population path, global food production must increase by 25 to 70 percent before 2050. It may seem impossible, but 'smart agriculture' is starting to help farmers increase production, lower costs and conserve water. Sensors, satellites and internet-connected tractors Smart agriculture often involves capturing and analyzing data in new ways to give farmers information that helps them make better decisions. For example, smart sensors can give farmers detailed maps of topography, resources and soil temperature. They can use climate forecasts to predict weather patterns in the coming days and weeks – predicting weather is hard in the developing world because weather forecasting infrastructure is less developed. The benefits of smart agriculture's big data use are shaping today's farming more than we might think. Climate Edge uses data capture and analysis to help farmers in the developing world farm better. They're fighting common problems like lack of affordable farm insurance and barriers to joining cooperatives by providing farmers with sensors and data-analyzing equipment. When the challenge is to do more with less, data-driven agriculture has a lot to offer. Internet-connected tractors can ensure no waste through overlap when sowing seeds or spraying. Satellites can monitor crop health and sustainability. It's easy to see why IoT is a hit with farmers. Business Insider Intelligence projects farms will install nearly 12 million agricultural sensors worldwide by 2023. It seems this part of smart agriculture is here to stay. Artificial intelligence in the wild Soil quality is one of the biggest challenges in the way of healthier, more abundant food. In recent decades, agricultural output has fallen by up to 13 percent because of the degradation of two billion hectares of global farmland. Berlin-based agricultural tech startup PEAT is out to solve the problem of degraded soil. PEAT developed Plantix, a deep learning application helping farmers identify soil defects and giving soil restoration advice. It also helps identify and correct plant pests and diseases. Plantix uses deep learning to help farmers identify and solve soil quality problems. It's not all daisy chains and smarter yields, mind. Agriculture 4.0 could help us feed billions sustainably and fairly. But, as with all seismic tech shifts, there are risks. One of those is cybersecurity. The cyber risks for smart farmers These new technologies rely on data and internet connection, opening a world of opportunity for hackers and cybercriminals to disrupt the system. If compromised, smart devices, IoT and connected infrastructure on farms could be controlled from the outside. We could see severe consequences, like turning pesticide-spreading drones against their owners or rendering expensive equipment completely useless. Historically, agricultural sector cyberattacks have been few and far between. The US Council of Economic Advisers reported the agricultural industry experienced just 11 cyber incidents in 2016. That's not to say agricultural cyberattacks won't happen more in future. And it goes beyond farms themselves. Where smart agriculture connects farmers with logistics companies and consumers, disruptions to IT systems in those supply chains, particularly logistics, could have catastrophic effects. For example, delayed shipments could mean spoiled produce, leaving shelves empty and raising prices. It's happened before. The 2017 WannaCry ransomware and Petya malware attack on shipping company Maersk led to a complete IT shutdown, causing 300 million US dollars in losses and a stadium-load of missed deliveries of products agriculture relies upon, from food to fuel. The future of farming is in collecting and analyzing big data to maximize efficiency. With the right regulation and widespread adoption of smart farming, farmers could boost yields to meet incoming population growth. But with any advance in technology must be fully safeguarded before we rely on it.
disinformation technology

Can AI help mend trust in business damaged by trolling and fakes?

  • Artificial intelligence
  • min read
    • In 2021, artificial intelligence (AI) might have finally become better than humans at being human. A study found people trust AI-made fake faces more than real people's faces. The researchers warn their findings show widespread use of AI poses a threat to the public. They recommend stronger safeguards restricting code to those with good reason to use it. As deepfakes and manipulated imagery increase, we've seen a counter-balance in businesses wanting to communicate with customers in a more authentic voice. This also means rooting out manipulated sentiment and trolling, so we see governments and brands contracting tech firms to reveal those spreading disinformation on social media. Could we get better at spotting fakes? In a world where four in ten teens can't tell the difference between fake and real news, rebuilding trust must be a business priority. But how AI technology has advanced makes it complex. It's now easy to create many synthetic images and videos using AI systems that analyze thousands of real images to learn how to make fakes. In the past, that workload would've needed many trained people. The FBI recently alerted that HR managers have spotted people using deepfakes to apply for remote jobs. But why? "Fake employment applicants may be hoping to access and hack the hiring company's IT systems," says Kaspersky senior data scientist Dmitry Anikin. "It's happening, but today, it's hard to do well. Making a high-quality deepfake needs much data and computing power, especially for online meetings. We should prepare for the threat to grow, because technology doesn't stand still." Fighting to maintain online credibility All business relies on trust. So how can business operate with the albatross of fakery hovering above? Luckily, companies like Truepic offer solutions. Truepic's software development kit (SDK) integrates with apps that rely on images, verifying media in real time. It checks image metadata – like when, where and on which device it was created – then cryptographically signs it, embedding validation in the file. This lets businesses on the back end know if content is real or synthetic. Truepic's clients include credit reporting company Equifax and car manufacturer Ford. When Ford pays out on a warranty claim, they need to know if car parts or damage photographs are legitimate or have been manipulated or pulled from the web. Brown says tagging tools like Truepic come at a time of brand and consumer frustration with social media companies doing little to stem disinformation. "We're in that sea change now. A consumer push for authenticity is starting to pressure social media platforms to take notice." But firms like Truepic aren't sitting on their hands waiting for Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to act differently. Truepic belongs to Adobe's Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), a community of tech companies, media, non-government organizations (NGOs) and others promoting an open industry standard for proving content authenticity. This year, Adobe released a three-part open-source toolkit to help get trust-building technology into developers' hands faster. Rooting out social media trolls ZeroFox, Astroscreen and Cyabra use AI to identify disinformation disseminators and 'sock puppets' – fake profiles creating an illusion of wider support for (or opposition to) an idea or company. Cyabra calls itself a "social media search engine designed to track and measure the impact of fake accounts." Companies like Cyabra recognize social media platforms aren't doing this enough. Rafi Mendelsohn, vice president of marketing at Cyabra, says, "We look at the 'breadcrumbs' to find out if an account is real or not." Breadcrumbs might be, for example, a user posting 23 hours a day or multiple users Tweeting the same text. Brands using Cyabra include Warner Media, which faced a deluge of Twitter trolling when they announced the first female-led superhero film, Wonder Woman, in 2017. "We helped Warner recognize authentic enthusiasm for the film and what was false," says Mendelsohn. Cyabra works with Brazilian, Colombian and US state governments to track fake narratives leading up to major elections. Mendelsohn notes, "Human analysts have done this work for years, but we can do it at scale with AI." In the highly publicized battle between Elon Musk and Twitter, Musk contracted Cyabra to find out how many Twitter users were fake before confirming purchase – their analysis found about 11 percent. Towards a more authentic internet Those studying distrust online have found language is important in identifying disinformation. Victoria Rubin, associate professor of information and media studies at University of Western Ontario, has tracked disinformation spreaders for several years and noticed some hallmarks. "Those who lie don't often reference themselves in posts and prefer to use 'they' in language." She says fake news and election lies spread fast when people don't look critically at what they see. It's common – haven't we all reacted to a news item after just reading the headline? Disinformation isn't going anywhere soon, so to attack it requires greater vigilance. Those I interviewed said education and company responsibility must be part of confronting it. They agree we must teach people how bad actors use new technologies to fool us something's real when it's not. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook must also do as much as possible to rebuild trust, says Truepic's Brown. "Our big-picture goal is an internet with built-in authenticity infrastructure, so everyone has the right data to make decisions that affect their lives."
by Innovating leaders.
Innovative tech.
About Secure Futures

Secure Futures magazine is your go-to business guide for opinions, trends and insight into the world of technology and cybersecurity. We help your business to bring on the future. Brought to you by Kaspersky, the global cybersecurity experts.

  • For all other countries